North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his sister Kim Yo-jong attend a meeting with then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in, not pictured, at the Peace House in the truce village of Panmunjeom inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in this April 27, 2018, file photo. Reuters-Yonhap

North Korea's decision to walk abruptly away from talks with Japan is due to a failure in reaching an agreement on the agenda for a possible summit between the two countries, experts said Wednesday.

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Tuesday the North has no interest in a summit with Japan and would reject any further negotiations.

This came just a day after she said that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had proposed a meeting with the reclusive leader.

"North Korea will pay no attention to and reject any contact and negotiations with Japan," Kim was quoted as saying by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

She accused Japan of remaining "stuck in the past" by continuing to raise the issue of Japanese abductees and North Korea's banned nuclear weapons programs.

Experts said that Pyongyang's sudden shift in stance on Tokyo came after Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa held a press conference on Monday, saying that the abduction issue has yet to be settled.

"For Japan, the resolution of the abduction issue is the most important point," Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, said. "Kishida won't give up the issue easily because he is facing increasing public pressure ahead of the September election."

"Kishida had expressed his intention to meet 'unconditionally' with Kim, but there are more downsides to it if he returns emptyhanded from talks with the North Korean leader," Park said.

Japan has said that North Korea abducted 17 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. It has insisted that 12 of them are still in the North, excluding five the North let return home, following then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's trip to Pyongyang in 2002.

Park said that North Korea is trying to embarrass Japan, which is a tactic Kim uses frequently.

"Details about the possible bilateral talk should have been kept under wraps until the two counterparts make an agreement," he added. "But North Korea has revealed them, which is intended to embarrass his Japanese counterpart."

Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for Korean Peninsula Strategy at the Sejong Institute, said a Kim-Kishida summit seems unlikely unless Japan's top leader takes a creative approach toward the North that would satisfy both countries.

"The two failed to narrow down and produce an agreement on the agenda," he said. "North Korea recognized that Japan was trying to use the summit as a tool to earn domestic political interests."

"Given his low approval rating, Kishida seems unlikely to keep his grip on power. North Korea doesn't have much to lose even if a Kim-Kishida summit doesn't take place."